The Social Construction of the Volunteer Non-Governmental Organization Worker Identity: Preliminary Analysis of Effects and Implications for Information Behaviors

Kathleen Reed

(Submission #36)

Abstract

Based on a case study of Openmind Projects, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in north-eastern Thailand that works on information and communication technologies-based international development projects, this poster presents initial findings of how social roles are taken up, assigned and deployed by volunteers in a non-governmental organization (NGO) environment. It is commonly agreed among tourism scholars that outside of traditional package tourism, travelers experience a temporary social environment in which they are suspended between their home culture and host culture. Such a transitory, temporary space does not fit well into information behavior theories that are centered on everyday-life information behavior. Thus, social positioning theory is deployed in this work as a vehicle to understand the effects and implications of shifting social roles on information behaviors.